So, have you thought about all of the factors listed earlier? If you break it down, it actually makes complete sense that YouTube would take all of these factors into account when ranking videos. For example, what good is a video that has 400,000 views, but has been flagged several times and has no comments? Or, should YouTube rank a video highly that only has 10,000 views, but has been favorited 2000 times? How about a new video that hits YouTube? Should it rank over a video that’s been around for a year and has built up 125 inbound links? So on and so forth. I think these are great questions and deserve a good amount of analysis to determine how important each factor is when determining rankings.

Needless to say, this list of factors goes well beyond what most people think about when optimizing videos for YouTube. The list includes community factors that aren’t easy to build up and can take a lot of time. Engagement is key in social media, but that takes time, effort, and a solid understanding of each community. I think we all have seen “drive by” social media, right? People who jump into a community, post their latest work, and leave before you even know what happened. They get 1 vote (their own), have no friends in the community, and basically wasted their time. Based on what I just explained, I like the idea that all of the other factors impact rankings. You should be rewarded for earning trust in a community, building a following, and providing valuable content that people cast votes for (via ratings, comments, and inbound links). It makes sense.